Saturday 16 March 2013

Back to Whitesprings ...

Just a few weeks after I'd first visited Whitesprings I went back there with my grandson. There's nothing that is quite so exciting for an eleven year old as an old ruin ... and I'm talking about the old farmhouse, not me.

The first thing Benjamin had to do was squeeze through the squeezer stile ...

Back to Whitesprings ... this time with The Boy

Benjamin's a bit of a photographer like me ...

Back to Whitesprings ... this time with The Boy

 After following the clear cut paths/trails we tackled some rougher stuff which brought us to a gate leading onto the moorland known as Big Bumper Piece ...

Back to Whitesprings ... this time with The Boy  

We didn't go onto the moorland though. We stayed in the woodland and visited the pond where I'd seen the frogspawn ...

Back to Whitesprings ... this time with The Boy

 Benjamin negotiated a dangerous woodland torrent ...

Back to Whitesprings ... this time with The Boy

 Then we reached Whitesprings ...

Back to Whitesprings ... this time with The Boy

Back to Whitesprings ... this time with The Boy



On the way back, on this short walk, we passed a redundant old squeezer stile ...

Back to Whitesprings ... this time with The Boy

We finished at the entrance to Whitesprings Plantation. As you can see Benjamin is rather shy ... like me ...

Back to Whitesprings ... this time with The Boy

 This walk was followed on the 27th March 2011 [and I have also added in the 14 mile walk I undertook on the 25th March 2011]
 
Length of walk ~ 1.77 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 90.49 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 21st March 2011 ~ 618.54 miles
 
  20 of 2011 [which means in 2011 I was averaging just 4.52 miles a walk. This from the man who had once walked 56 miles in 24 hours ...]
 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap

8 comments:

  1. Benjamin seems to be enjoying his walk with you Charlie.The wall is a lovely green,I love the old (stone) ruin.Ann

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    1. It was a good walk in an interesting place Ann. There is quite a lot of moss and mildew on the walls ...

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  2. Seeing old ruins like Whitesprings always gets me wondering who lived and worked there, what their daily lives were like. And why, ultimately, the place was abandoned. There are a few places I know in this area where ruins like this can be found.

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    1. Well I know it was the Hopkinson family and they were farmers. I dare say the woods around here were probably once fields ... if only we had some old photographs.

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  3. I am surprised that vandals and/or squatters hadn't taken it over for a refuge there. Is the name Whitesprings from bubbling water or alkaline water or ? I wish Old Man would do more things like that with his grandchildren. What wonderful memories for Benjamin and lovely visuals to have in his head when reading a woodsy mystery novel.

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    1. I think it's too far out for squatters and our vandals tend to be more urban than this. As for Whitesprings I dare say it's the bubbling water but I'm not sure. Benjamin also has some videos too ~ he'll be able to see his Grandad come to life. There is a five or two second clip of my Dad walking through the farmyard and smirking as he passes the camera ~ that short clip beats every photo because his face is alive ... his every nuance ...

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  4. The gate onto Big Bumper Piece makes a lovely pic for some reason.

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    1. The gate is very nicely weathered and I rather like the photo myself.

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